Chapter XVIII: Act 1737: , and the Apportionment Act 1834, and is now allowed generally (9)

_Belles-Lettres and Romances._--Mahomet in the Koran had made extensive use of _saj'_ or rhymed prose (see above). This form then dropped out of use almost entirely for some time. In the 10th century, however, it was revived, occurring almost simultaneously in the _Sermons_ of Ibn Nubata (946-984) and the _Letters_ of Abu Bakr ul-Khwarizmi. Both have been published several times in the East. The epistolary style was further cultivated by Hamadhani (q.v.) and carried to perfection by Abu-l'Ala ul-Ma'arri. Hamadhini was also the first to write in this rhymed prose a new form of work, the _Maqama_ ("assembly"). The name arose from the fact that scholars were accustomed to assemble for the purpose of rivalling one another in orations showing their knowledge of Arabic language, proverb and verse. In the _Maqamas_ of Hamadhani a narrator describes how in various places he met a wandering scholar who in these assemblies puts all his rivals to shame by his eloquence. Each oration forms the substance of a _Maqama_, while the _Maqamas_ themselves are united to one another by the constant meetings of narrator and scholar. Hariri (q.v.) quite eclipsed the fame of his predecessor in this department, and his _Maqamas_ retain their influence over Arabian literature to the present day. As late as the 19th century the sheik Nasif ul Yaziji (1800-1871) distinguished himself by writing sixty clever _Maqamas_ in the style of Hariri (ed. Beirut, 1856, 1872). While this class of literature had devoted itself chiefly to the finesses of the language, another set of works was given to meeting the requirements of moral education and the training of a gentleman. This, which is known as "Adab literature," is anecdotic in style with much quotation of early poetry and proverb. Thus government, war, friendship, morality, piety, eloquence, are some of the titles under which Ibn Qutaiba groups his stories and verses in the _'Uyun ul Akhbar_. _Jahiz_ (q.v.) in the 9th century and Baihaqi (_The Kitab al-Mahasin val-Masawi_, ed. F. Schwally, Giessen, 1900-1902) early in the 10th, wrote works of this class. A little later a Spaniard, Ibn 'Abdrabbihi (Abdi-r-Rabbihi), wrote his _'Iqd ul-Farid_ (see section _Anthologies_). The growth of city life in the Abbasid capital led to the desire for a new form of story, differing from the old tales of desert life. This was met in the first place by borrowing. In the 8th century Ibn Muqaffa', a convert from Mazdaism to Islam, translated the Pahlavi version of Bidpai's fables (itself a version of the Indian _Panchatantra_) into Arabic with the title _Kalila wa Dimna_ (ed. Beirut, various years). Owing to the purity of its language and style it has remained a classic work. The _Book of the 1001 Nights_ (_Arabian Nights_) also has its basis in translations from the Indian through the Persian, made as early as the 9th century. To these stories have been added others originating in Bagdad and Egypt and a few others, which were at first in independent circulation. The whole work seems to have taken its present form (with local variations) about the 13th century. Several other romances of considerable length are extant, such as the _Story of 'Antar_ (ed. 32 vols., Cairo, 1869, &c., translated in part by Terrick Hamilton, 4 vols., London, 1820), and the _Story of Saif ibn Dhi Yezen_ (ed. Cairo, 1892). (G. W. T.)

_Historical Literature._--Arabian historians differ from all others in the unique form of their compositions. Each event is related in the words of eye-witnesses or contemporaries transmitted to the final narrator through a chain of intermediate reporters (_rawis_), each of whom passed on the original report to his successor. Often the same account is given in two or more slightly divergent forms, which have come down through different chains of reporters. Often, too, one event or one important detail is told in several ways on the basis of several contemporary statements transmitted to the final narrator through distinct lines of tradition. The writer, therefore, exercises no independent criticism except as regards the choice of authorities; for he rejects accounts of which the first author or one of the intermediate links seems to him unworthy of credit, and sometimes he states which of several accounts seems to him the best.

A second type of Arabian historiography is that in which an author combines the different traditions about one occurrence into one continuous narrative, but prefixes a statement as to the lines of authorities used and states which of them he mainly follows. In this case the writer recurs to the first method, already described, only when the different traditions are greatly at variance with one another. In yet a third type of history the old method is entirely forsaken and we have a continuous narrative only occasionally interrupted by citation of the authority for some particular point. But the principle still is that what has been well said once need not be told again in other words. The writer, therefore, keeps as close as he can to the letter of his sources, so that quite a late writer often reproduces the very words of the first narrator.

From very early times story-tellers and singers found their subjects in the doughty deeds of the tribe on its forays, and sometimes in contests with foreign powers and in the impression produced by the wealth and might of the sovereigns of Persia and Constantinople. The appearance of the Prophet with the great changes that ensued, the conquests that made the Arabs lords of half the civilized world, supplied a vast store of new matter for relations which men were never weary of hearing and recounting. They wished to know everything about the apostle of God. Every one who had known or seen him was questioned and was eager to answer. Moreover, the word of God in the Koran left many practical points undecided, and therefore it was of the highest importance to know exactly how the Prophet had spoken and acted in various circumstances. Where could this be better learned than at Medina, where he had lived so long and where the majority of his companions continued to live? So at Medina a school was gradually formed, where the chief part of the traditions about Mahomet and his first successors took a form more or less fixed. Soon men began to assist memory by making notes, and pupils sought to take written jottings of what they had heard from their teachers. Thus by the close of the 1st century many _dictata_ were already in circulation. For example, Hasan of Basra (d. 728 A.D.) had a great mass of such notes, and he was accused of sometimes passing off as oral tradition things he had really drawn from books; for oral tradition was still the one recognized authority, and it is related of more than one old scholar, and even of Hasan of Basra himself, that he directed his books to be burned at his death. The books were mere helps. Long after this date, when all scholars drew mainly from books, the old forms were still kept up. Tabari, for example, when he cites a book expresses himself as if he had heard what he quotes from the master with whom he read the passage or from whose copy he transcribed it. He even expresses himself in this wise: "'Omar b. Shabba has _related_ to me in his book on the history of Basra." No independent book of the 1st century from the Flight (i.e. 622-719) has come down to us. It is told, however, that Moawiya summoned an old man named 'Abid ibn Sharya from Yemen to Damascus to tell him all he knew about ancient history and that he induced him to write down his information. This very likely formed the nucleus of a book which bore the name of that sheik and was much read in the 3rd century from the Flight. It seems to be lost now. But in the 2nd century (719-816) real books began to be composed. The materials were supplied in the first place by oral tradition, in the second by the _dictata_ of older scholars, and finally by various kinds of documents, such as treaties, letters, collections of poetry and genealogical lists. Genealogical studies had become necessary through Omar's system of assigning state pensions to certain classes of persons according to their kinship with the Prophet, or their deserts during his lifetime. This subject received much attention even in the 1st century, but books about it were first written in the 2nd, the most famous being those of Ibn al-Kalbi (d. 763), of his son Hisham (d. 819), and of Al-Sharqi ibn al-Qutami. Genealogy, which often called for elucidations, led on to history. Baladhuri's excellent _Ansab al-Ashraf_ (Genealogies of the Nobles) is a history of the Arabs on a genealogical plan.

The oldest extant history is the biography of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767). This work is generally trustworthy. Mahomet's life before he appeared as a prophet and the story of his ancestors are indeed mixed with many fables illustrated by spurious verses. But in Ibn Ishaq's day these fables were generally accepted as history--for many of them had been first related by contemporaries of Mahomet--and no one certainly thought it blameworthy to put pious verses in the mouth of the Prophet's forefathers, though, according to the _Fihrist_ (p. 92), Ibn Ishaq was duped by others with regard to the poems he quotes. The original work of Ibn Ishaq seems to be lost. That which we possess is an edition of it by Ibn Hisham (d. 834) with additions and omissions (text ed. by F. Wustenfeld, Gottingen, 1858-1860; German translation by Weil, Stuttgart, 1864).

The _Life_ of the Prophet by Ibn Oqba (d. 758), based on the statements of two very trustworthy men, 'Urwa ibn az-Zubair (d. 713) and Az-zuhri (d. 742), was still much read in Syria in the 14th century. Fragments of this have been edited by E. Sachau, Berlin, 1904. We fortunately possess the _Book of the Campaigns_ of the Prophet by al-Waqidi (d. 822) and the important _Book of Classes_ of his disciple Ibn Sa'd (q.v.). Waqidi had much more copious materials than Ibn Ishaq, but gives way much more to a popular and sometimes romancing style of treatment. Nevertheless he sometimes helps us to recognize in Ibn Ishaq's narrative modifications of the genuine tradition made for a purpose, and the additional details he supplies set various events before us in a clearer light. Apart from this his chief merits lie in his studies on the subject of the traditional authorities, the results of which are given by Ibn Sa'd, and in his chronology, which is often excellent. A special study of the traditions about the conquest of Syria made by M.J. de Goeje in 1864 (_Memoires sur la conquete de la Syrie_, 2nd ed., Leiden, 1900), led to the conclusion that Waqidi's chronology is sound as regards the main events, and that later historians have gone astray by forsaking his guidance. This result has been confirmed by certain contemporary notices found by Th. Noldeke in 1874 in a Syriac MS. of the British Museum. And that Ibn Ishaq agrees with Waqidi in certain main dates is important evidence for the trustworthiness of the former also. For the chronology before the year 10 of the Flight Waqidi did his best, but here, the material being defective, many of his conclusions are precarious. Waqidi had already a great library at his disposal. He is said to have had 600 chests of books, chiefly _dictata_ written by or for himself, but in part real books by Abu Mikhnaf (d. 748), Ibn Ishaq (whom he uses but does not name), 'Awana (d. 764), Abu Mashar (d. 791) and other authors. Abu Mikhnaf left a great number of monographs on the chief events from the death of the Prophet to the caliphate of Walid II. These were much used by later writers, and we have many extracts from them, but none of the works themselves except a sort of romance based on his account of the death of Hosain (Husain) of which Wustenfeld has given a translation. With regard to the history of Irak in particular he was deemed to have the best information, and for this subject he is Tabari's chief source, just as Madaini, a younger contemporary of Waqidi, is followed by preference in all that relates to Khorasan. Madaini's _History of the Caliphs_ is the best, if not the oldest, published before Tabari; but this book is known only by the excerpts given by later writers, particularly Baladhuri and Tabari. From these we judge that he had great narrative power, with much clear and exact learning, and must be placed high as a critical historian. His plan was to record the various traditions about an event, choosing them with critical skill; sometimes, however, he fused the several traditions into a continuous narrative. A just estimate of the relative value of the historians can only be reached by careful comparison in detail. This has been essayed by Brunnow in his study on the Kharijites (Leiden, 1884), in which the narrative of Mubarrad in the Kamil is compared with the excerpts of Madaini given by Baladhuri and those of Abu Mikhnaf given by Tabari. The conclusion reached is that Abu Mikhnaf and Madaini are both well informed and impartial.

Among the contemporaries of Waqidi and Madaini were Ibn Khidash (d. 838), the historian of the family Muhallab, whose work was one of Mubarrad's sources for the _History of the Kharijites_; Haitham ibn 'Adi (d. 822), whose works, though now lost, are often cited; and Saif ibn 'Omar at-Tamimi, whose book on the revolt of the tribes under Abu-Bekr and on the Mahommedan conquests was much used by Tabari. His narratives are detailed and often tinged with romance, and he is certainly much inferior to Waqidi in accuracy. Wellhausen has thoroughly examined the work of Saif in _Skizzen und Vorarbeiten_, vi. Besides these are to be mentioned Abu 'Ubaida (d. 825), who was celebrated as a philologist and wrote several historical monographs that are often cited, and Azraqi, whose excellent _History of Mecca_ was published after his death by his grandson (d. 858). With these writers we pass into the 3rd century of Islam. But we have still an important point to notice in the 2nd century; for in it learned Persians began to take part in the creation of Arabic historical literature. Ibn Muqaffa' translated the great _Book of Persian Kings_, and others followed his example. Tabari and his contemporaries, senior and junior, such as Ibn Qutaiba, Ya'qubi, Dinawari, preserve to us a good part of the information about Persian history made known through such translations.[4] But even more important than the knowledge conveyed by these works was their influence on literary style and composition. Half a century later began versions from the Greek either direct or through the Syriac. The pieces translated were mostly philosophical; but the Arabs also learned something, however superficially, of ancient history.

The 3rd century (816-913) was far more productive than the 2nd. Abu 'Ubaida was succeeded by Ibn al-A'rabi (d. 846), who in like manner was chiefly famous as a philologist, and who wrote about ancient poems and battles. Much that he wrote is quoted in Tabrizi's commentary on the _Hamasa_, which is still richer in extracts from the historical elucidations of early poems given by ar-Riyashi (d. 871). Of special fame as a genealogist was Ibn Habib (d. 859), of whom we have a booklet on Arabian tribal names (ed. Wustenfeld, 1850). Azraqi again was followed by Fakihi, who wrote a _History of Mecca_ in 885,[5] and 'Omar b. Shabba (d. 876), who composed an excellent history of Basra, known to us only by excerpts. Of the works of Zubair b. Bakkar (d. 870), one of Tabari's teachers, a learned historian and genealogist much consulted by later writers, there is a fragment in the Koprulu library at Constantinople, and another in Gottingen, part of which has been made known by Wustenfeld (_Die Familie Al-Zobair_, Gottingen, 1878). Ya'qubi (Ibn Wadih) wrote a short general history of much value (published by Houtsma, Leiden, 1883). About India he knows more than his predecessors and more than his successors down to Beruni. Ibn Khordadhbeh's historical works are lost. Ibn 'Abdalhakam (d. 871) wrote of the conquest of Egypt and the West. Extracts from this book are given by M'G. de Slane in his _Histoire des Berberes_, from which we gather that it was a medley of true tradition and romance, and must be reckoned, with the book of his slightly senior contemporary, the Spaniard Ibn Habib, in the class of historical romances. A high place must be assigned to the historian Ibn Qutaiba or Kotaiba (d. 889), who wrote a very useful _Handbook of History_ (ed. Wustenfeld, Gottingen, 1850). Much more eminent is Baladhuri (d. 893), whose book on the Arab conquest (ed. M.J. de Goeje, Leiden, 1865-1866) merits the special praise given to it by Mas'udi, and who also wrote a large work, the _Ansab al-Ashraf_. A contemporary, Ibn abi Tahir Taifur (d. 894), wrote on the Abbasid caliphs and was drawn on by Tabari. The sixth part of his work is in the British Museum. The universal history of Dinawari (d. 896), entitled _The Long Narratives_, has been edited by Girgas (1887).

All these histories are more or less thrown into the shade by the great work of Tabari (q.v.), whose fame has never faded from his own day to ours. The _Annals_ (ed. M. de Goeje, Leiden, 1879-1901) are a general history from the creation to 302 A.H. (= A.D. 915). As a literary composition they do not rank very high, which may be due partly to the author's years, partly to the inequality of his sources, sometimes superabundant, sometimes defective, partly perhaps to the somewhat hasty condensation of his original draft. Nevertheless the value of the book is very great: the author's selection of traditions is usually happy, and the episodes of most importance are treated with most fulness of detail, so that it deserves the high reputation it has enjoyed from the first. This reputation rose steadily; there were twenty copies (one of them written by Tabari's own hand) in the library of the Fatimite caliph 'Aziz (latter half of the 4th century), whereas, when Saladin became lord of Egypt, the princely library contained 1200 copies (Maqrizi, i. 408 seq.).

The _Annals_ soon came to be dealt with in various ways. They were published in shorter form with the omission of the names of authorities and of most of the poems cited; some passages quoted by later writers are not found even in the Leiden edition. On the other hand, some interpolations took place, one in the author's lifetime and perhaps by his own hand. Then many supplements were written, e.g. by Ferghani (not extant) and by Hamadhani (partly preserved in Paris). 'Arib of Cordova made an abridgment, adding the history of the West and continuing the story to about 975.[6] Ibn Mashkawaih wrote a history from the creation to 980, with the purpose of drawing the lessons of the story, following Tabari closely, as far as his book is known, and seldom recurring to other sources before the reign of Moqtadir; what follows is his own composition and shows him to be a writer of talent.[7] In 963 an abridgment of the _Annals_ was translated into Persian by Bal'ami, who, however, interwove many fables.[8] Ibn al-Athir (d. 1234) abridged the whole work, usually with judgment, but sometimes too hastily. Though he sometimes glided lightly over difficulties, his work is of service in fixing the text of Tabari. He also furnished a continuation to the year 1224. Later writers took Tabari as their main authority, but sometimes consulted other sources, and so add to our knowledge--especially Ibn al-Jauzi (d. 1201), who adds many important details. These later historians had valuable help from the biographies of famous men and special histories of countries and cities, dynasties and princes, on which much labour was spent from the 4th century from the Flight onwards.

The chief historians after Tabari may be briefly mentioned in chronological order. Razi (d. A.D. 932) wrote a _History of Spain_; Eutychius (d. 940) wrote _Annals_ (ed. L. Cheikho, Paris, 1906), which are very important because he gives the Christian tradition; Suli (d. 946) wrote on the Abbasid caliphs, their viziers and court poets; Mas'udi (q.v.) composed various historical and geographical works (d. 956). Of Tabari's contemporary Hamza Ispahani (c. 940) we have the Annals (ed. Gottwaldt, St Petersburg, 1844); Ibn al-Qutiya wrote a _History of Spain_; Ibn Zulaq (d. 997) a _History of Egypt_; 'Otbi wrote the _History of Mahmud of Ghazna_, at whose court he lived (printed on the margin of the Egyptian edition of Ibn al-Athir); Tha'labi (d. 1036) wrote a well-known _History of the Old Prophets_; Abu Nu'aim al-Ispahani (d. 1039) wrote a _History of Ispahan_, chiefly of the scholars of that city; Tha'alibi (d. c. 1038) wrote, _inter alia_, a well-known _History of the Poets of his Time_, published at Damascus, 1887; Biruni (q.v.) (d. 1048) takes a high place among historians; Koda'i (d. 1062) wrote a _Description of Egypt_ and also various historical pieces, of which some are extant; Ibn Sa'id of Cordova (d. 1070) wrote a _View of the History of the Various Nations_. Bagdad and its learned men found an excellent historian in al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071), and Spain in Ibn Hayan (d. 1076), and half a century later in Ibn Khaqan (d. 1135) and Ibn Bassam (d. 1147). Sam'ani (d. 1167) wrote an excellent book on genealogies; 'Umara (d. 1175) wrote a _History of Yemen_ (ed. H.C. Kay, London, 1892); Ibn 'Asaqir (d. 1176) a _History of Damascus and her Scholars_, which is of great value, and exists in whole or in part in several libraries. The _Biographical Dictionary_ of the Spaniard Ibn Pascual (d. 1182) and that of Dabbi, a somewhat junior contemporary, are edited in Codera's _Bibliotheca Arab. Hisp._ (1883-1885); Saladin found his historian in the famous 'Imad uddin (d. 1201) (Arabic text, ed. C. Landberg, Leiden, 1888). Ibn ul-Jauzi, who died in the same year, has been already mentioned. Abdulwahid's _History of the Almohades_, written in 1224, was published by Dozy (2nd ed., 1881). Abdullatif or Abdallatif (d. 1232) is known by his writings about Egypt (trans. de Sacy, 1810); Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233) wrote, in addition to the _Chronicle_ already mentioned, a _Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries of the Prophet_. Qifti (d. 1248) is especially known by his _History of Arabic Philologists_. Sibt ibn al-Jauzi (d. 1256), grandson of the Ibn al-Jauzi already mentioned, wrote a great _Chronicle_, of which much the larger part still exists. Codera has edited (Madrid, 1886) Ibn al-'Abbar's (d. 1260) _Biographical Lexicon_, already known by Dozy's excerpts from it. Ibn al-'Adim (d. 1262) is famed for his _History of Aleppo_, and Abu Shama (d. 1267) wrote a well-known _History of Saladin and Nureddin_, taking a great deal from 'Imad uddin. Ibn abi Usaibia (d. 1269) wrote a _History of Physicians_, ed. A. Muller. The _History_ of Ibn al-'Amid (d. 1276), better known as Elmacin, was printed by Erpenius in 1625. Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi (d. 1274 or 1286) is famous for his histories, but still more for his geographical writings. The noted theologian Nawawi (q.v.; d. 1278) wrote a _Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of the First Ages of Islam_. Preeminent as a biographer is Ibn Khallikan (q.v.; d. 1282), whose much-used work was partly edited by de Slane and completely by Wustenfeld (1835-1840), and translated into English by the former scholar (4 vols., 1843-1871).

Abu 'l-Faraj, better known as Bar-Hebraeus (d. 1286), wrote, besides his Syriac _Chronicle_, an Arabic _History of Dynasties_ (ed. E. Pocock, Oxford, 1663, Beirut, 1890). Ibn 'Adhari's _History of Africa and Spain_ has been published by Dozy (2 vols., Leiden, 1848-1851), and the _Qartas_ of Ibn abi Zar' by Tornberg (1843). One of the best-known of Arab writers is Abulfeda (d. 1331) (q.v.). Not less famous is the great _Encyclopaedia_ of his contemporary Nuwairi (d. 1332), but only extracts from it have been printed. Ibn Sayyid an-Nas (d. 1334) wrote a full biography of the Prophet; Mizzi (d. 1341) an extensive work on the men from whom traditions have been derived. We still possess, nearly complete, the great _Chronicle_ of Dhahabi (d. 1347), a very learned biographer and historian. The geographical and historical _Masalik al-Absar_ of Ibn Fadlallah (d. 1348) is known at present by extracts given by Quatremere and Amari. Ibn al-Wardi (d. c. 1349), best known by his _Cosmography_, wrote a _Chronicle_ which has been printed in Egypt. Safadi (d., 1363) got a great name as a biographer. Yafi'i (d. 1367) wrote a _Chronicle of Islam_ and _Lives of Saints_. Subki (d. 1369) published _Lives of the Theologians of the Shafi'ite School_. Of Ibn Kathir's _History_ the greatest part is extant. For the history of Spain and the Maghrib the writings of Ibn al-Khatib (d. 1374) are of acknowledged value. Another history, of which we possess the greater part, is the large work of Ibn al-Furat (d. 1404). Far superior to all these, however, is the famous Ibn Khaldun (q.v.) (d. 1406). Of the historical works of the famous lexicographer Fairuzabadi (q.v.) (d. 1414) only a _Life of the Prophet_ remains. Maqrizi (d. 1442) is the subject of a separate article; Ibn Hajar (d. 1448) is best known by his _Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries of the Prophet_, published in the _Bibliotheca Indica_. Ibn 'Arabshah (d. 1450) is known by his _History of Timur_ (Leeuwarden, 1767). 'Aini (d. 1451) wrote a _General History_, still extant. Abu'l-Mahasin ibn Taghribirdi (d. 1469) wrote at length on the history of Egypt; the first two parts have been published by Juynboll and Matthes, Leiden, 1855-1861. Flugel has published Ibn Kotlubogha's _Biographies of the Hanifite Jurists_. Ibn Shihna (d. 1485) wrote a _History of Aleppo_. Of Sakhawi we possess a bibliographical work on the historians. The polymath Suyuti (q.v.) (d. 1505) contributed a _History of the Caliphs_ and many biographical pieces. Samhudi's _History of Medina_ is known through the excerpts of Wustenfeld (1861). Ibn Iyas (d. 1524) wrote a _History of Egypt_, and Diarbekri (d. 1559) a _Life of Mahomet_. To these names must be added Maqqari (Makkari) (q.v.) and Hajji Khalifa (q.v.) (d. 1658). He made use of European sources, and with him Arabic historiography may be said to cease, though he had some unimportant successors.

A word must be said of the historical romances, the beginnings of which go back to the first centuries of Islam. The interest in all that concerned Mahomet and in the allusions of the Koran to old prophets and races led many professional narrators to choose these subjects. The increasing veneration paid to the Prophet and love for the marvellous soon gave rise to fables about his childhood, his visit to heaven, &c., which have found their way even into sober histories, just as many Jewish legends told by the converted Jew Ka'b al-Ahbar and by Wahb ibn Monabbih, and many fables about the old princes of Yemen told by 'Abid, are taken as genuine history (see, however, Mas'udi, iv. 88 seq.). A fresh field for romantic legend was found in the history of the victories of Islam, the exploits of the first heroes of the faith, the fortunes of 'Ali and his house. Then, too, history was often expressly forged for party ends. The people accepted all this, and so a romantic tradition sprang up side by side with the historical, and had a literature of its own, the beginnings of which must be placed as early as the 2nd century of the Flight. The oldest specimens still extant are the fables about the conquest of Spain ascribed to Ibn Habib (d. 852), and those about the conquest of Egypt and the West by Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam (d. 871). In these truth and falsehood are mingled. But most of the extant literature of this kind is, in its present form, much more recent; e.g. the _Story of the Death of Hosain_ by the pseudo-Abu Mikhnaf (translated by Wustenfeld); the _Conquest of Syria_ by Abu Isma'il al-Basri (edited by Nassau Lees, Calcutta, 1854, and discussed by de Goeje, 1864); the pseudo-Waqidi (see Hamaker, _De Expugnatione Memphidis et Alexandriae_, Leiden, 1835); the pseudo-Ibn Qutaiba (see Dozy, _Recherches_); the book ascribed to A'sam Kufi, &c. Further inquiry into the origin of these works is called for, but some of them were plainly directed to stirring up fresh zeal against the Christians. In the 6th century of the Flight some of these books had gained so much authority that they were used as sources, and thus many untruths crept into accepted history. (M. J. de G.; G. W. T.)

_Geography._--The writing of geographical books naturally began with
the description of the Moslem world, and that for practical purposes.
Ibn Khordadhbeh, in the middle of the 9th century, wrote a _Book of
Roads and Provinces_ to give an account of the highways, the
posting-stations and the revenues of the provinces. In the same
century Ya'qubi wrote his _Book of Countries_, describing specially
the great cities of the empire. A similar work describing the
provinces in some detail was that of Qudama or Kodama (d. 922).
Hamdani (q.v.) was led to write his great geography of Arabia by his
love for the ancient history of his land. Muqaddasi (Mokaddasi) at the
end of the 10th century was one of the early travellers whose works
were founded on their own observation. The study of Ptolemy's
geography led to a wider outlook, and the writing of works on
geography (q.v.) in general. A third class of Arabian geographical
works were those written to explain the names of places which occur in
the older poets. Such books were written by Bakri (q.v.) and Yaqut
(q.v.)[9]

_Grammar and Lexicography._--Arab tradition ascribes the first
grammatical treatment of the language to Abu-l-Aswad ud-Du'ali (latter
half of the 7th century), but the certain beginnings of Arabic grammar
are found a hundred years later. The Arabs from early times have
always been proud of their language, but its systematic study seems to
have arisen from contact with Persian and from the respect for the
language of the Koran. In Irak the two towns of Basra and Kufa
produced two rival schools of philologists. Bagdad soon had one of its
own (cf. G. Flugel's _Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber_, Leipzig,
1862). Khalil ibn Ahmad (718-791), an Arab from Oman, of the school of
Basra, was the first to enunciate the laws of Arabic metre and the
first to write a dictionary. His pupil Sibawaihi (q.v.), a Persian,
wrote the grammar known simply as _The Book_, which is generally
regarded in the East as authoritative and almost above criticism.
Other members of the school of Basra were Abu 'Ubaida (q.v.), Asma'i
(q.v.), Mubarrad (q.v.) and Ibn Duraid (q.v.). The school of Kufa
claimed to pay more attention to the living language (spoken among the
Bedouins) than to written laws of grammar. Among its teachers were
Kisa'i, the tutor of Harun al-Rashid's sons, Ibn A'rabi, Ibn as-Sikkit
(d. 857) and Ibn ul-Anbari (885-939). In the fourth century of Islam
the two schools of Kufa and Basra declined in importance before the
increasing power of Bagdad, where Ibn Qutaiba, Ibn Jinni (941-1002)
and others carried on the work, but without the former rivalry of the
older schools. Persia from the beginning of the 10th century produced
some outstanding students of Arabic. Hamadhani (d. 932) wrote a book
of synonyms (ed. L. Cheikho, Beirut, 1885). Jauhari (q.v.) wrote his
great dictionary the _Sahah_. Tha'alibi (q.v.) and Jurjani (q.v.) were
almost contemporary, and a little later came Zamakhshari (q.v.), whose
philological works are almost as famous as his commentary on the
Koran. The most important dictionaries of Arabic are late in origin.
The immense work, _Lisan ul Arab_ (ed. 20 vols, Bulaq, 1883-1889), was
compiled by Ibn Manzur (1232-1311), the _Qamus_ by Fairuzabadi, the
_Taj ul'Arus_ (ed. 10 vols., Bulaq, 1890), founded on the _Qamus_, by
Murtada uz-Zabidi (1732-1790).

_Scientific Literature._--The literature of the various sciences is
dealt with elsewhere. It is enough here to mention that such existed,
and that it was not indigenous. It was in the early Abbasid period
that the scientific works of Greece were translated into Arabic, often
through the Syriac, and at the same time the influence of Sanskrit
works made itself felt. Astronomy seems in this way to have come
chiefly from India. The study of mathematics learned from Greece and
India was developed by Arabian writers, who in turn became the
teachers of Europe in the 16th century. Medical literature was
indebted for its origin to the works of Galen and the medical school
of Gondesapur. Many of the Arabian philosophers were also physicians
and wrote on medicine. Chemistry proper was not understood, but
Arabian writings on alchemy led Europe to it later. So also the
literature of the animal world (cf. Damiri) is not zoological but
legendary, and the works on minerals are practical and not scientific.
See ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY and historical sections of such scientific
articles as ASTRONOMY, &c. (G. W. T.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For the general history of the succeeding period see CALIPHATE;
EGYPT: _History_, S "Mahommedan."

[2] For further details of this period, see Egypt: _History_,
"Mahommedan Period," S 8.

[3] On the subject of transmission cf. Th. Noldeke's _Beitrage zur
Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber_ (Hanover, 1804); and W.
Ahlwardt's _Bemerkungen uber die Aechtheit der alten arabischen
Gedickte_ (Greifswald, 1872).

[4] For details see the introduction to Noldeke's translation of
Tabari's _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden_
(Leiden, 1879).

[5] Published in excerpt by Wustenfeld along with Azraqi (Leipzig,
1857-1859).

[6] Of this work the Gotha Library has a portion containing 290-320
A.H., of which the part about the West has been printed by Dozy in
the Bayan, and the rest was published at Leiden in 1897.

[7] A fragment (198-251 A.H.) is printed in de Goeje, _Fragm. Hist.
Ar._ (vol. ii., Leiden, 1871).

[8] The first part was rendered into French by Dubeux in 1836. There
is an excellent French translation by Zotenberg (1874).

[9] The chief Arabian geographical works have been edited by M.J. de
Goeje in his _Bibliotheca Geographorum arabicorum_ (Leiden, 1874
ff.).

ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY. What is known as "Arabian" philosophy owed to Arabia little more than its name and its language. It was a system of Greek thought, expressed in a Semitic tongue, and modified by Oriental influences, called into existence amongst the Moslem people by the patronage of their more liberal princes, and kept alive by the intrepidity and zeal of a small band of thinkers, who stood suspected and disliked in the eyes of their nation. Their chief claim to the notice of the historian of speculation comes from their warm reception of Greek philosophy when it had been banished from its original soil, and whilst western Europe was still too rude and ignorant to be its home (9th to 12th century).

Origin.

In the course of that exile the traces of Semitic or Mahommedan influence gradually faded away, and the last of the line of Saracenic thinkers was a truer exponent of the one philosophy which they all professed to teach than the first. The whole movement is little else than a chapter in the history of Aristotelianism. That system of thought, after passing through the minds of those who saw it in the hazy light of an orientalized Platonism, and finding many laborious but narrow-purposed cultivators in the monastic schools of heretical Syria, was then brought into contact with the ideas and mental habits of Islam. But those in whom the two currents converged did not belong to the pure Arab race. Of the so-called Arabian philosophers of the East, al-Farabi, Ibn-Sina and al-Ghazali were natives of Khorasan, Bokhara and the outlying provinces of north-eastern Persia; whilst al-Kindi, the earliest of them, sprang from Basra, on the Persian Gulf, on the debatable ground between the Semite and the Aryan. In Spain, again, where Ibn-Bajja, Ibn-Tufail and Ibn Rushd rivalled or exceeded the fame of the Eastern schools, the Arabians of pure blood were few, and the Moorish ruling class was deeply intersected by Jewish colonies, and even by the natives of Christian Spain. Thus, alike at Bagdad and at Cordova, Arabian philosophy represents the temporary victory of exotic ideas and of subject races over the theological one-sidedness of Islam, and the illiterate simplicity of the early Saracens.

Islam had, it is true, a philosophy of its own among its theologians (see MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION). It was with them that the Moslem theology--the science of the word (_Kalam_)--first came into existence. Its professors, the _Mutakallimun_ (known in Hebrew as _Medabberim_, and as _Loquentes_ in the Latin versions), may be compared with the scholastic doctors of the Catholic Church. Driven in the first instance to speculation in theology by the needs of their natural reason, they came, in after days, when Greek philosophy had been naturalized in the Caliphate, to adapt its methods and doctrines to the support of their views. They employed a quasi-philosophical method, by which, according to Maimonides, they first reflected how things ought to be in order to support, or at least not contradict, their opinions, and then, when their minds were made up with regard to this imaginary system, declared that the world was no otherwise constituted. The dogmas of creation and providence, of divine omnipotence, chiefly exercised them; and they sought to assert for God an immediate action in the making and the keeping of the world. Space they looked upon as pervaded by atoms possessing no quality or extension, and time was similarly divided into innumerable instants. Each change in the constitution of the atoms is a direct act of the Almighty. When the fire burns, or the water moistens, these terms merely express the habitual connexion which our senses perceive between one thing and another. It is not the man that throws a stone who is its real mover: the supreme agent has for the moment created motion. If a living being die, it is because God has created the attribute of death; and the body remains dead, only because that attribute is unceasingly created. Thus, on the one hand, the object called the cause is denied to have any efficient power to produce the so-called effect; and, on the other hand, the regularities or laws of nature are explained to be direct interferences by the Deity. The supposed uniformity and necessity of causation is only an effect of custom, and may be at any moment rescinded. In this way, by a theory which, according to Averroes, involves the negation of science, the Moslem theologians believed that they had exalted God beyond the limits of the metaphysical and scientific conceptions of law, form and matter; whilst they at the same time stood aloof from the vulgar doctrines, attributing a causality to things. Thus they deemed they had left a clear ground for the possibility of miracles.

But at least one point was common to the theological and the philosophical doctrine. Carrying out, it may be, the principles of the Neo-Platonists, they kept the sanctuary of the Deity securely guarded, and interposed between him and his creatures a spiritual order of potent principles, from the Intelligence, which is the first-born image of the great unity, to the Soul and Nature, which come later in the spiritual rank. Of God the philosophers said we could not tell what He is, but only what He is not. The highest point, beyond which strictly philosophical inquirers did not penetrate, was the active intellect,--a sort of soul of the world in Aristotelian garb--the principle which inspires and regulates the development of humanity, and in which lies the goal of perfection for the human spirit. In theological language the active intellect is described as an angel. The inspirations which the prophet receives by angelic messengers are compared with the irradiation of intellectual light, which the philosopher wins by contemplation of truth and increasing purity of life. But while the theologian incessantly postulated the agency of that God whose nature he deemed beyond the pale of science, the philosopher, following a purely human and natural aim, directed his efforts to the gradual elevation of his part of reason from its unformed state, and to its final union with the controlling intellect which moves and draws to itself the spirits of those who prepare themselves for its influences. The philosophers in their way, like the mystics of Persia (the Sufites) in another, tended towards a theory of the communion of man with the spiritual world, which may be considered a protest against the practical and almost prosaic definiteness of the creed of Mahomet.

Arabian philosophy, at the outset of its career in the 9th century, was able without difficulty to take possession of those resources for speculative thought which the Latins had barely achieved at the close of the 12th century by the slow process of rediscovering the Aristotelian logic from the commentaries and verses of Boetius. What the Latins painfully accomplished, owing to their fragmentary and unintelligent acquaintance with ancient philosophy, was already done for the Arabians by the scholars of Syria. In the early centuries of the Christian era, both within and without the ranks of the church, the Platonic tone and method were paramount throughout the East. Their influence was felt in the creeds which formulated the orthodox dogmas in regard to the Trinity and the Incarnation. But in its later days the Neo-Platonist school came more and more to find in Aristotle the best exponent and interpreter of the philosopher whom they thought divine. It was in this spirit that Porphyry, Themistius and Joannes Philoponus composed their commentaries on the treatises of the Peripatetic system which, modified often unconsciously by the dominant ideas of its expositors, became in the 6th and 7th centuries the philosophy of the Eastern Church. But the instrument which, in the hands of John of Damascus (Damascenus), was made subservient to theological interests, became in the hands of others a dissolvent of the doctrines which had been reduced to shape under the prevalence of the elder Platonism. Peripatetic studies became the source of heresies; and conversely, the heretical sects prosecuted the study of Aristotle with peculiar zeal. The church of the Nestorians, and that of the Monophysites, in their several schools and monasteries, carried on from the 5th to the 8th century the study of the earlier part of the Organon, with almost the same means, purposes and results as were found among the Latin schoolmen of the earlier centuries. Up to the time when the religious zeal of the emperor Zeno put a stop to the Nestorian school at Edessa, this "Athens of Syria" was active in translating and popularizing the Aristotelian logic. Their banishment from Edessa in 489 drove the Nestorian scholars to Persia, where the Sassanid rulers gave them a welcome; and there they continued their labours on the Organon. A new seminary of logic and theology sprang up at Nisibis, not far from the old locality; and at Gandisapora (or Nishapur), in the east of Persia, there arose a medical school, whence Greek medicine, and in its company Greek science and philosophy, ere long spread over the lands of Iran. Meanwhile the Monophysites had followed in the steps of the Nestorians, multiplying Syriac versions of the logical and medical science of the Greeks. Their school at Resaina is known from the name of Sergius, one of the first of these translators, in the days of Justinian; and from their monasteries at Kinnesrin (Chalcis) issued numerous versions of the introductory treatises of the Aristotelian logic. To the Isagoge of Porphyry, the Categories and the Hermeneutica of Aristotle, the labours of these Syrian schoolmen were confined. These they expounded, translated, epitomized and made the basis of their compilations, and the few who were bold enough to attempt the Analytics seem to have left their task unaccomplished.

The energy of the Monophysites, however, began to sink with the rise of the Moslem empire; and when philosophy revived amongst them in the 13th century, in the person of Gregorius Bat-Hebraeus (Abulfaragius) (1226-1286), the revival was due to the example and influence of the Arabian thinkers. It was otherwise with the Nestorians. Gaining by means of their professional skill as physicians a high rank in the society of the Moslem world, the Nestorian scholars soon made Bagdad familiar with the knowledge of Greek philosophy and science which they possessed. But the narrow limits of the Syrian studies, which added to a scanty knowledge of Aristotle some acquaintance with his Syrian commentators, were soon passed by the curiosity and zeal of the students in the Caliphate. During the 8th and 9th centuries, rough but generally faithful versions of Aristotle's principal works were made into Syriac, and then from the Syriac into Arabic. The names of some of these translators, such as Johannitius (Hunain ibn-Ishaq), were heard even in the Latin schools. By the labours of Hunain and his family the great body of Greek science, medical, astronomical and mathematical, became accessible to the Arab-speaking races. But for the next three centuries fresh versions, both of the philosopher and of his commentators, continued to succeed each other.

To the Arabians Aristotle represented and summed up Greek philosophy, even as Galen became to them the code of Greek medicine. They adopted the doctrine and system which the progress of human affairs had made the intellectual aliment of their Syrian guides. From first to last Arabian philosophers made no claim to originality; their aim was merely to propagate the truth of Peripateticism as it had been delivered to them. It was with them that the deification of Aristotle began; and from them the belief that in him human intelligence had reached its limit passed to the later schoolmen (see SCHOLASTICISM). The progress amongst the Arabians on this side lies in a closer adherence to their text, a nearer approach to the bare exegesis of their author, and an increasing emancipation from control by the tenets of the popular religion.

Under the Caliphate.

Secular philosophy found its first entrance amongst the Saracens in the days of the early caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, whose ways and thoughts had been moulded by their residence in Persia amid the influences of an older creed, and of ideas which had in the last resort sprung from the Greeks. The seat of empire had been transferred to Bagdad, on the highway of Oriental commerce; and the distant Khorasan became the favourite province of the caliph. Then was inaugurated the period of Persian supremacy, during which Islam was laid open to the full current of alien ideas and culture. The incitement came, however, not from the people, but from the prince: it was in the light of court favour that the colleges of Bagdad and Nishapur first came to attract students from every quarter, from the valleys of Andalusia as well as the upland plains of Transoxiana. Mansur, the second of the Abbasids, encouraged the appropriation of Greek science; but it was al-Ma'mun, the son of Harun al-Rashid, who deserves in the Mahommedan empire the same position of royal founder and benefactor which is held by Charlemagne in the history of the Latin schools. In his reign (813-833) Aristotle was first translated into Arabic. Orthodox Moslems, however, distrusted the course on which their chief had entered, and his philosophical proclivities became one ground for doubting as to his final salvation.

In the eastern provinces the chief names of Arabian philosophy are those known to the Latin schoolmen as Alkindius, Aliarabius, Avicenna and Algazel, or under forms resembling these. The first of these, Alkindius (_see_ KINDI), flourished at the court of Bagdad in the first half of the 9th century. His claims to notice at the present day rest upon a few works on medicine, theology, music and natural science. With him begins that encyclopaedic character--the simultaneous cultivation of the whole field of investigation which is reflected from Aristotle on the Arabian school. In him too is found the union of Platonism and Aristotelianism expressed in Neo-Platonic terms. Towards the close of the 10th century the presentation of an entire scheme of knowledge, beginning with logic and mathematics, and ascending through the various departments of physical inquiry to the region of religious doctrine, was accomplished by a society which had its chief seat at Basra, the native town of al-Kindi. This society--the Brothers of Purity or Sincerity (Ikhwan us Safa'i)--divided into four orders, wrought in the interests of religion no less than of science; and though its attempt to compile an encyclopaedia of existing knowledge may have been premature, it yet contributed to spread abroad a desire for further information. The proposed reconciliation between science and faith was not accomplished, because the compromise could please neither party. The fifty-one treatises of which this encyclopaedia consists are interspersed with apologues in true Oriental style, and the idea of goodness, of moral perfection, is as prominent an end in every discourse as it was in the alleged dream of al-Ma'mun. The materials of the work come chiefly from Aristotle, but they are conceived in a Platonizing spirit, which places as the bond of all things a universal soul of the world with its partial or fragmentary souls. Contemporary with this semi-religious and semi-philosophical society lived Alfarabius (see FARABI), who died in 950. His paraphrases of Aristotle formed the basis on which Avicenna constructed his system, and his logical treatises produced a permanent effect on the logic of the Latin scholars. He gave the tone and direction to nearly all subsequent speculations among the Arabians. His order and enumeration of the principles of being, his doctrine of the double aspect of intellect, and of the perfect beatitude which consists in the aggregation of noble minds when they are delivered from the separating barriers of individual bodies, present at least in germ the characteristic theory of Averroes. But al-Farabi was not always consistent in his views; a certain sobriety checked his speculative flights, and although holding that the true perfection of man is reached in this life by the elevation of the intellectual nature, he came towards the close to think the separate existence of intellect no better than a delusion.

Avicenna.